Let’s take a look at some numbers: The App Store currently has over a thousand applications for Vision Pro. Just two weeks ago there were 600. And in Apple Arcade there are around 220 games, almost all of them compatible with Vision Pro. It’s clear that the Apple Vision Pro is useful for much more than sit back and watch a movie in a simulated cinema —even if the feeling is astonishing, believe me—.
As you read this, thousands of people are programming and coding with the same viewer as others reading a comic book. The visionOS operating system is ridiculously versatile and the application publishing process It is simpler than that of its rival Meta. But what is happening with video games?
That’s the big question for those of us who grew up excited about the possibilities. of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy and this eternal one that I want and I can’t which dozens of subsequent inventions have attempted to nourish. Beyond the idea of ”spatial computing”, the simple fact of imagining a game conceptualized from scratch for the Vision Pro makes us believe in the obvious: there is a lot of room for growth here which does not is not exploited. Is Apple preparing something special to revolutionize the video game market?
Video games and virtual reality: a 50-year-old promise
Although the concept of “virtual reality” dates back to the article The Ultimate Display, written by Ivan Sutherland in 1965, AR was a technological catchphrase during the heyday of eSports, around eleven years ago. However, it died because of its own lack of identity: not only could it not fit into users’ pockets like an iPhone, but it also lacked any essentials for entering homes.
But let’s stick with information from the time, where polls pointed towards a suggestive idea: the more expensive it is, the more attractive it is. This is why the HTC Vive has survived in the collective memory compared to bestsellers like the Homido VR:
Let’s now focus on 2024. A lot has happened since this first Oculus prototype presented by the young Californian Palmer Luckey. More than a decade for the idea to mature. More actually: Jony Ive worked on Vision Pro and There are patent files that directly reference this viewer since the birth of the first iPhonein 2007. It’s not for nothing that Tim Cook said that the Vision Pro came to market when it could, not before, after a decade of internal iterations.
Matthew Ball said the Vision Pro focuses on “video entertainment, immersive calling and workplace productivity.” What the essayist didn’t point out is that the Vision Pros are useful for so much more. And they are the ideal gateway to this “3D Internet” when the time comes.
WhatsApp was born as an exclusive application for iPhone, but its best version is a multiplatform version. And yet, Apple knows how to differentiate itself, imparting a unique personality through small design and usability decisions. I used iWork while my classmates switched to Office, and I wrote music in Logic while the rest of my friends used Cubase. I grew up with an apple next to me and I know that Apple does not sell specific solutions, but rather very sophisticated products so that the solutions come by themselves.
Back to the first point: what about video games? If the video game industry has taught us anything, it’s that only successes create the market. From the Minecraft community to the viral success of “PalWorld” or “Helldivers II”, including some of the latest historical milestones like “Baldur’s Gate III” or “Counter Strike 2”, the video game market is measured in success. Even the owners of Steam, the leader in the PC market, could not sell them a Valve Index to the vast majority of users in order to play exclusives as attractive as Half
Let’s be honest, where is the video game market currently? Sony and Microsoft have been presenting cross-platform projects for years. The platform is no longer the physical support but the digital portal. Where before they were proud of “I have this thing that you can’t have”, now Xbox Game Pass swallows up the identity of the Xbox console itself. Soon you will be able to play “Hi-Fi Rush” or “Sea of Thieves” on a PlayStation 5 and you will now be able to play “exclusives” like “Horizon Zero Dawn”, “God of War”, “ The Last of.” Us Part” or the first “Marvel’s Spider-Man” on any PC. And, of course, you can all play it from a Vision Pro.
Apple Vision Pro games? Outside of Apple
An oscilloscope like the Vision Pro serves two markets: entertainment —leisure, which includes video games—and job – from doing something you already do without them to doing something you can only do with them. Its value as a tool will determine whether we are facing a passing fashion or not a trend to consolidate.
Tim Cook said it was “the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created.” He has more than 5,000 patents. Over the past eight years, Apple has spent $149 billion on research and development and filed a total of 20,000 patents. In other words, a quarter of the company’s muscle has been invested in these happy Apple Vision Pros.
What about exclusives, something native to your platform that no one can have? The question I ask myself is another: what for? In an increasingly ubiquitous digital ecosystem, the key is not so much installation and execution as reproduction. John Voorhees has published a guide to gaming on the Apple Vision Pro and the key is to do the same thing I did with my old iMac: use a controller and run the games through streaming apps. Currently, you can play in three ways:
- By duplicate: The Vision Pro allows you to extend any of your equipment, whether you have a Macbook or an iMac, by being able to automatically switch from monitor to viewer.
- Use remote reading apps– You can run browser versions of Geforce Now, Xbox Cloud or Amazon Luna and record your sessions. And if that feels uncomfortable, you can always use an app that “cleans” the browser by running it in borderless window mode, like Nexus+.
- Mediant Diffusion, if you already own these consoles. Applications such as OneCast for Xbox, MirrorPlay and PSRemote Play for PlayStation or SteamLink for PC games take care of transmitting game playback over your local network while consoles or the computer handles the technical muscle.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, the birth of a new market that will peak in five years. It remains unclear whether Apple will devote resources to co-financing or directly developing its own “Half Life: Alyx.”
But historical rigor tells us that their business does not lie there, that Apple clearly knows where the money is – in services – and where they should position themselves: providing tools that improve the experience. As always, with the AirPodsconsidered just a ridiculous and embarrassing device to carry on the street, the iPad -which Apple called resolutionist and never revolutionary – nor the iPhone, that useless “phone without a keypad” which today occupies seven of the ten positions among the best-selling phones in the world.
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